First day in field

Yesturday I started my measurements in field. It was a beautiful day with a lot of sun and warm temperatures. Really surprising that the arctic June weather allows you to work in tank top and walking around barefoot, i.e. climate warming ;)

We started to prepare everything at 9 and came to the field quite late, like 11.30 or something. The original plan was to measure on 48 plots, 24 on each side of a snowfence. Unfortunately the snowfence works very well and the snow hadn't melted yet, so I only had 24 plots to measure. We, me and Riikka, were back at the station at 18, so it was a quite long day (I also wrote an exam from 07.00 to 09.00..). 

Well everything work well and I'm glad it is finally summer! Enjoy the pictures! 

Not very green yet. But very smelly, so there are defenitly VOCs.

One block at the snowfence experiment. As I said, it is still snow downwind from the fences.

The site

Measurements going on. in control and warming (open top chamber)

A very nice view from the site. Sea, icebergs and the horizon.

The snowfence works!

I think that I took the wrong plane, and ended up in Africa instead of the arctic.

Trip to Disko

First of all I want to tell about the trip to Disko Island, just because it was really amazing. We started really early in Copenhagen, flying directly to Kangerlussuaq W Greenland. It took ca 4 h and was a really pleasant trip. We arrived 9.40 in Greenlandic time and the next flight, to Assiaat, left at 13.35, so we had some hours to kill. It left us with no option than hiking up the nearest mountain. It was really beautiful and we could see the huge icecap on the inland. The airport is located a little distance from the sea, just at the inner end of a fjord.  Next stop was Aasiaat, a small village with a lot of Greenlandic houses in all different colors. We arrived there in the afternoon, but really tired because of the 4 h difference in time. We went to a café and I ate more fish than I have done in a year ;)

hiking in Kangerlussuaq

Aasiaat

Aasiaat

Fish dish

I slept 10 h that night.

 The boat to Disko was leaving at 13.30, so again we had some hours to kill. Whale watching was the plan. And yes. We saw some whales! Two hours in the boat and a lot of icebergs later we came back to Aassiaat. We bought lunch and went to Disko Line, the ferry that takes you to Disko Island. I was really disappointed because there wasn’t even music on the boat, what kind of disco is that?

So, in 2 days we travelled a lot, climbed a mountain and went on a boat trip to the whales. Just a normal day at the office! 

Humpback whale

Iceberg

Iceberg

Preparing for field

Print tickets- Check

Print articles for reading- Check

Print program for measurements- Check

Fixing LI-batteries- Check

Packing batteries- Check

Packing clothes- Almost Check

Packing tubes- Almost Check

Packing Bikini- CHECK!

Greenland in a few days

On Monday (10 of June) I'm going to Disko Island, W Greenland. I'm looking forward to go there, I've heard that it is an amazing site and I really longing for wild nature and icebergs (see this!). I've also heard from one source that it is more mosquitoes than any other place and from another that it is to windy for mosquitoes.. We'll see! =) Our equipment has been shipped to Disko, so I don't have to carry the instruments, however I'm taking some batteries and absorbing tubes with me (10 kg!), so I guess my backpack is going to be really heavy. I'll have internet access on the station (I think) so I hope I will be able to publish some posts (and pictures) on the blog and also keep in touch with family and friends. 

TED talk; Eating insects

Just read an article about an article from FAO discussing insects as a food resource. Check it out, very interesting. And also check out this TED talk about eating insects... The TED talk focus on the global problem with feeding an increasing population with an increased portion of meat. Maybe insects is the solution of a very sever situation. We just have to get used to it, because it may be the one and only option.